Ashes
by Echo parsnip
Summary: <html><head></head>It's December 5th, Reid Garwin's birthday. His thirteenth birthday to be exact. He never asked for any of this, not the powers, nor the abuse. But one way to lighten to the situation was pestering his best friends little sister. Watch as the descendants of Ipswich grow.</html>


(A/N:) Alright, alright. I want to apologize for the last story. I just kept getting writers block so I ended up tossing that one. It was just too complex for me to develop all of those ideas into one story so here I am, with a total new concept for you. I hope you enjoy.

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><p>"<em>Crawling in my skin, These wounds they will not heal"<em>

"REID GARWIN!" The bellowing drunken voice coming from the downstairs library in the Garwin household startled the young blonde boy. His piercing blue orbs danced around the room trying to find a place to hide. The thirteen year old dashed over towards his closet, while slowly closing the door behid him. He quickly faltered backwards over his clothes basket as he heard his bedroom door open. He sat there quietly, trying to lower the sound of scared breathing. He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them.

"Where are you, you sorry excuse of a son." The voice boomed as it came closer to his closet. Reid took in a big breath as the light from his bedroom window broke into his closet from the doors opening. "Get your ass out here." The elder Garwin exclaimed pulling the boy from his shirt collar out onto the blue carpet. He simply tossed the boy to the sidewall,resulting in his head bouncing off the wall. Reid silently stared up inot his father's cold eyes.

"All because of you, your mother left us. on this day four years ago. remember that, son?" His father asked sneering the last part of it. Reid could smell the alcohol lingering on his bresth as his father stood there waving around the whiskey Bottle. Reid watched, as the bottle soon met the side of his face. He quickly cowered backwards bringing his palm to his face.

"After she realized, that you, you would become like me. she couldn't handle it. All because you were born! " he commented before taking another swig. Reid's gaze hardened as he quickly gained the courage to grab the book closest to him and chucked it at his father's forehead. his father, didn't seemed phased by this at all, Reid quickly heard a small chuckle emitting from his father's throat just before he grabbed Reid by the neck and tossed him across the room and into his dresser. Reid suddenly felt a force crushing him into the mirror behind his back from his chest. As he felt the glass crackling under his weight, he winced at the pain holding back the tears.

"_Fear is how I fall, Confusing what is real"_

The throbbing in his head became much more louder as his vision soon turned blurry. the pressure suddenly lifted from Reid's chest as he heard the distant sound of shoes tapping agains the carpet before the sound of a door closing. The next thing he felt was the soft carpet against his ear as his vision turned black, while collapsing against the floor.

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><p>The darkness of the night soon crept over Ipswich. the cool breeze brushed against his skin, relieving his body of the burning pain from today's earlier events. His eyes were fighting back the tears as his legs carried him down the main road at a fast pace.<p>

_"There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface"_

That's what Reid was doing, running from the fear from his father, running from the pain of living in that God forsaken house. He felt his pulse quicken as his chest heaved with each breath. His body suddenly doubled over into the snow. Feeling the icy substance under his hands, he quickly formed a hard grip against the snow, as his nails soon met the flesh of his palms. They dug into his skin out of anger.

Sighing his eyes glanced around, before landing on a wrought iron gate. He quickly walked over towards the tree and began to climb. When he reached the branch hanging above the gate and into the prigate yard, he quickly jumped down from in landing within the perimeter. turning around he let out a low breath, seeing his breath turn white in the air he began walking towards the gigantic house.

his eyes landed on the last window to the left, on the second story. His eyes trailed lazily over the vinery which led up to the window. Slowly he walked over, feeling a sense of relief take over the pain. Staring into the vinery he grasped onto the strong vine and looked up towards his escape.

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><p>The two thirteen year olds raced towards the front door, with giggles erupting from the both of them. The taller one smirked as he playfully pushed the younger one to the ground.<p>

"Caleb! You nit, we agreed there would be no pushing!" The voice cried out through the muffled snow, from the faceplant. Caleb laughed as he turned around and sauntered over to his young sister by only two minutes. He reached down and grabbed her arm, helping her up.

"Caleb! Coraline! Knock That off!" A young blonde woman called out a few feet behind them. The two turned around, eyes falling upon their nanny. "He started it Hannah." the young sandy blonde hair girl commented while shaking the snow off of her hair onto her brother's arm.

Hannah, sighed as she pulled the keys out of her coat walking up towards the front door. "I don't care who started It. I'm finishing it, and I want to the both of you to be in in your beds, After I open this door. We don't want your mother to come home with you two hyped up on ice cream." She hotly replied opening the door, as the two rushed past her into the house.

With a quick toss of their winter clothes and boots off the two ran upstairs into their bedrooms. With the slamming of the bedroom doors echoing through the house, Hannah shook her head and ran a hand through her hair as she began to pull out her college textbooks to study.

Coraline yawned quietly to herself as she flicked the lights on in her bedroom, her forrest green eyes danced around her room. Smiling she walked over towards her closet to grab some sweatpants and a hoodie to sleep in. She will admit That today was fun, regardless of their mother helping their father adjust to living away from the house. It's not often her and Caleb were allowed ice cream. So Hannah decided to make an exception, since they were watching Willy Wonka after dinner. She placed her hand on the handle and pulled the closet door open.

"Oh my god."

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><p>Coraline quietly kneeled down as her eyes scanned over the sleeping body that was nestled against her sleep hoodie along the wall of her closet. A navy blue hood was pulled up over the face with a black cord connected to CD player leading into the hood. She could hear the loud music playing from the headphones, while at the same time she heard a soft breathing pattern emitting from the person.<p>

Her hand lazily traced along the navy blue sleeve and stopped reaching at the shoulders, ever so softly she gave two small taps onto the bony shoulder. this resulted the sleeping body to jolt awake and quickly shuffle backwards and cower. the hooded head soon rose up and a pair of icy blue eyes soon met a pair of soft Forrest green ones.

"Reid, it's me." Coraline greeted as she stepped back to allow her classmate to step out of the closet and into her room. His eyes soon returned to the floor as he stood up and wobbled out of the closet. She lowered her head to try and get a good look of his face, but the hood hid it pretty well; along with the fact that he kept his head lowers towards the ground.

"I'm going to head over to Tyler's." He muttered making his way towards the window, but was soon stopped when he felt a small chill as the hood of his hoodie was pulled off. "Oh my god, Reid." Coraline commented as she saw dried blood trailing from both of Reid's ears. He stood a good few inches taller than her so she had a nice view of his face when he turned around.

A bruised cheek bone, cut lip, she couldn't imagine what he looked like under his hoodie. Silently she grabbed ahold of his arm only for him to recoil away from her. Giving a sad smile she nodded over towards her bed for him to sit. He obliged seeing the snow fall from outside her window. She walked over towards him with some tissues in her hand and stood in front of him.

"Reid, I'm sorry." she stated before wetting one of the tissues with her tongue and slowly pressed it against his neck to wipe the dried blood away. He stared down at the floor, with an us faltered gaze. "Look, Coraline. I just came here and crashed, because your house was the closest at the time." Reid stated wanting to avoid having this conversation. She heard Reid mention ever so often of the distaste his father had for him ever since his mother left.

"It's fine Reid, but I can tell that your not." She commented as she moved towards the other side of his neck while his gaze followed her. Closing his eyes out of frustration he stood up brushing past her towards the window again, quickly opening it. This resulted in Coraline grabbing her arms and walking over towards the window, staring out while standing next to him.

"It's freezing out. Look, we don't have to talk about it Reid but, stay here for the night. It's too cold for you to go back and too late." She scolded while shutting the window at the same time leaning in front of him to do so. She turned around and walked over towards her closet again to try and find an extra blanket for him. Seeing as he didn't say anything or even made a motion to move, she turned around to see what was up.

"He blames me for it." The coldness in his voice caught Coraline by surprise, while at the same time scaring her a little. She quietly watched as he slowly turned around staring at the ground the whole time.

"He did this to me, on my own dam birthday." Reid muttered harshly as his head slowly lifted up to reveal dead coal black eyes staring back towards Coraline.

"My fucking **Birthday**!" He exclaimed while at the same time the lightbulbs in Coraline's room soon busted, as well as every other light bulb in the house.

_"This lack of self-control I fear is never ending"_

Coraline quickly gasped as she heard the sound of feet running in the hallway; soon her door busted open and a flashlight was now shining in her room. "Coraline! You okay?" Caleb asked as the light shone onto her small frame, he quickly lowered the light to the ground as he walked up to her.

"Yeah, I'm-I'm-"

"Freezing!" Caleb finished for her, seeing his sister shivering there as the whispering sound of the icy window flowing into her bedroom through the bedroom window. The two young Danvers children were suddenly interrupted as Hannah came in the room with a flashlight and light bulbs, she quickly changed the lightbulb in her ceiling fan with the help of Caleb.

"Great, now we just have to do this to every single room in the house." Caleb stated when the ceiling light was now shining in the bedroom. Coraline glanced around the room seeing that Reid was nowhere to be found.

"Come on Caleb, let's hit your room. Coraline, clean up the broken bulb, but be careful." The distant voice of Hannah demanded as Coraline walked up to her window and peered out.

Placing her hands on the window sill, she glanced out into the moonlit night. It was December 5th. the third son of Ipswich's birthday. Seeing her hot breath in the night she quietly whispered,

"Happy birthday Reid. I hope your night gets better and safer."


End file.
